Issues of concern to people who live in the west: property rights, water rights, endangered species, livestock grazing, energy production, wilderness and western agriculture. Plus a few items on western history, western literature and the sport of rodeo... Frank DuBois served as the NM Secretary of Agriculture from 1988 to 2003. DuBois is a former legislative assistant to a U.S. Senator, a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Interior, and is the founder of the DuBois Rodeo Scholarship.

Thursday, May 19, 2016

Battle over Bears Ears intensifies in Utah

Debate over a 1.9-million-acre national monument in southeast Utah is
escalating this week as state lawmakers prepare to take up a formal
resolution opposing President Obama's use of the Antiquities Act in the
Beehive State.

But several Navajos joined state lawmakers and Gov. Gary Herbert (R)
yesterday on the steps of the statehouse to denounce the monument
proposal, which they argue lacks local support and would limit tribal
access to firewood, medicinal plants and ceremonial sites.

The conservative, Salt Lake City-based Sutherland Institute yesterday also released a five-minute documentary featuring testimony from Utah Navajos who oppose a national monument.

Bears Ears is believed to be near the top of Obama's list of tracts
to permanently protect under the Antiquities Act. At 1.9 million acres,
it would be his largest land-based designation to date -- and his most
controversial.

The proposal is strongly opposed by Utah's congressional delegation and
Herbert, who hand-delivered a letter to Obama in February warning that a
unilateral designation would "only exacerbate an already tense
situation" surrounding public land management in Utah.

What is a State anyway? Apparently not much if it contains federal land. Here we have a proposal that is opposed by Utah's congressional designation (2 U.S. Senators and 4 members of the House of Representatives), the Utah state legislature and the sitting Governor. And yet, one man, 2082 miles away, can totally ignore them and change the land use on 1.9 million acres within the state. Such is the state of federal land policy today.So we are witness to Utah leaders shakin' like a hound dog shitting a logging chain and expecting a hook any minute. No wonder they are taking the lead on reform of this abomination.